rst question I propound gets
an evasive answer. The man who did not know would have replied that he
did not. I dislike being juggled with, and for the first time in my
life, Sir David Lyndsay, I am angered with you."

The knight was visibly perturbed, but at last he answered,--

"In this matter I am sworn to secrecy."

"All secrets reveal themselves at the king's command," replied James
sternly. "Speak out; speak fully, and speak quickly."

"There is no guilt in the secret, your majesty. I doubt if any of your
court would hesitate to tell you all, were it not that they fear
ridicule, which is a thing a Scottish noble is loth to put up with
whether from the king or commoner."

"Get on, and waste not so much time in the introduction," said his
majesty shortly.

"Well, there came some time since to Stirling, an Italian chemist, who
took up his abode and set up his shop in the abandoned refectory of
the old Monastery. He is the author of many wonderful inventions, but
none interests the court so much as the compounding of pure gold in a
crucible from the ordinary earth of the fields."

"I can well believe that," cried the king. "I have some stout fighters
in my court who fear neither man nor devil in battle, yet who would
stand with mouth agape before a juggler's tent. But surely, Davie,
you, who have been to the colleges, and have read much from learned
books, are not such a fool as to be deluded by that ancient fallacy,
the transmutation of any other metals into gold?"

Sir David laughed uneasily.

"I did not say I believed it, your majesty, still, a man must place
some credence in what his eye sees done, as well as in what he reads
from books; and after all, the proof of the cudgel is the rap on the
head. I have beheld the contest, beginning with an empty pot and
ending with a bar of gold."

"Doubtless. I have seen a juggler swallow hot iron, but I have never
believed it went down his throttle, although it appeared to have done
so. Did you get any share of the transmuted gold? That's the practical
test, my Davie."

"That is exactly the test your barons applied. I doubt if their
nobilities would take much interest in a scientific experiment were
there no profit at the end of it. Each man entering the laboratory
pays what he pleases to the money taker at the table, but it must not
be less than one gold bonnet-piece. When all have entered, the doors
are closed and locked. The amount of money collected is weigh